Weekend Moments

We went grocery shopping Saturday morning.  There seemed to be more on the shelves than there has been in the past month and a half.  There was toilet paper - multiple brands. We didn't need any, so passed on that, but there was also disinfecting wipes, and we did get some of those, although we were limited to just one container.  I still can't find liquid Lysol anywhere.  I can only get the foaming Lysol bathroom cleaner, so I did get that - one bottle limit. Better than nothing. There seemed to be plenty of meat, fresh produce and other items.  Prices on some things have gone up.  We did find lots of managers specials, which is always nice.  Most people in the store, including all the employees, were wearing masks and socially distancing.  

As we walked into the store, I saw these flowers over in the floral department.  I love the colors and mentioned how pretty I thought they were.  A few minutes later, Charly handed me a bouquet and told me he loves me. So sweet! These beautiful daisies are now in a vase on my  dining room table. 

Saturday, after our daily walk around the neighborhood, I made masks to send to my mother and sister who asked me for some.  We got those in the mail, then stopped in at our old house (now our income property) to have a look around now that the old tenants have moved out.  We were pleasantly surprised to see that the place was basically quite clean and in good repair. There was no real damage anywhere. It will get a good thorough cleaning and disinfecting tomorrow before the new tenants move in.  Dinner was Papa Murphy's Pizza (Taco Grande Mexican Pizza) with a cinnamon wheel for dessert.  

Saturday I relaxed by watching a Dateline episode, then Charly and I stayed up and read together.  

I am really enjoying this Fannie Flagg book. It is the first of her books that I have read.  Charly is reading a book by Alan Dean Foster called Green Thieves.  Charly reads more than I do.  He loves sci-fi and fantasy  and  thriller books.  Alan Dean Foster has been one of his favorite authors since I met him almost 43 years ago.  Right now, Charly is also reading a lot of books by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Late Saturday night, Josh came upstairs to talk to Charly about a history book (actually a two-volume set) he is reading - The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.  All three of us enjoy history, but Charly and Josh especially enjoy reading and learning about World War II.  Josh had some questions about what he is reading, and Charly had answers. Charly knows more about history than anyone I have ever met. We also talked to Josh about the fact that we are going to make some changes to our vacation plans due to COVID-19.  We were going to go to San Antonio with Josh for our big family vacation, but we are now thinking of doing something much closer to home if we go anywhere at all this summer.  Charly and I have also scheduled a week in the Colorado mountains (Steamboat Springs) at the end of May and early June, but neither of us are that comfortable going anywhere away from the local area right now.  That may change depending on what is going on with the virus. After church, I did my scripture reading and Come Follow Me study. 

After lunch, Charly and went on our daily two mile walk around the neighborhood.  We often see other neighbors out walking and while we don't know most of them by name, they are almost always friendly and they smile and say hello to us.  We really love our neighborhood and feel so blessed to live in this area.

Back home, I did some volunteer records indexing at Familysearch.org.  Today, I indexed military records of African American Civil War troops.  On this chart, you can see that I am exceeding my indexing goals for this month.  In the lower left hand corner, the gray line on the graph shows where I should be to make my goal of 50 records a month.  The short green line shows where I actually am, and I am well ahead of schedule,  I hope to index well over 100 records this month.  

While I indexed, I listened to the BYU Women's Conference, which took place virtually last Friday. The messages of love, service and kindness were wonderful.  

Dinner on Sunday was this cheesy chicken/rice/broccoli casserole.  

It was excellent, all-in-one meal, and there are plenty of leftovers for tomorrow night.  If you are interested, you can find the recipe here. 

Plans for this coming week:

• I need to go into school and clean up my classroom for the summer - probably Monday or Tuesday. I understand the rooms and furniture have all been taken apart and disinfected, so I need to see what is still out in my room that needs to be put away.
• I plan to keep grading student work that is turned in each day. The school year is winding down and I will only be posting one more assignment for my junior English class.  After that,  I just need to grade what is submitted and answer student questions, of course.  Hard to believe we are nearly at the end of this very weird school year. 
• I am getting my hair trimmed on Monday!  Wow that is usually such a little, mundane thing, but with everything that is going on, it is a big deal now.  Josh got a haircut on Saturday.  
• I want to get some more plants for the container garden on the patio.  The plan is to go to Home Depot on Monday and get a few more things - perhaps more tomatoes and strawberries. They seem to do well in containers.  
• I need to get my oldest grandson's birthday present (an Amazon gift card) ordered and in the mail to him.  Hard to believe he is going to be 14 this month.  I have already sent cards to a granddaughter and to my oldest daughter who will be 39 next week.  There is no way I can have a daughter who is middle-aged, is there?!? 
• More mask making.  I have now made 95 masks and have given away 83.  My current project is to make masks and send them to the Navajo Nation which is in desperate need and has send out a call for donated cloth face masks. You can read about that here.   I also told our bishop (pastor) that I would be happy to make masks for anyone in our church congregation (ward) who needs one.

Honestly, with the current Coronavirus pandemic situation, each day seems much the same as days before and after.  I suspect that even with a few things opening up, many people, including me, will continue to be careful and cautious.